Mohamed Salah scored from the penalty spot to keep Liverpool's slim hopes of qualifying for next season's Champions League alive as they cruised to a 1-0 win over Fulham at Anfield in the Premier League on Wednesday.
The win lifts Liverpool to 59 points, four behind fourth-placed Manchester United, who have two games in hand over the Merseysiders, while Fulham are 10th on 45 points.
Fulham had the first decent chance of the game when Carlos Vinicius forced Alisson Becker into a save with a stinging shot that was turned behind for a corner in the 14th minute, but a moment of madness from Issa Diop saw them fall behind six minutes before the break.
The Fulham centre back looked to be in no danger as he allowed a pass to run across his body, but Darwin Nunez made the most of his indecisiveness to poke the ball away and the defender hacked him down, with the referee immediately pointing to the spot.
Diop catches Nunez in the box and concedes a penalty ??
— SuperSport Football ?? (@SSFootball) May 3, 2023
Up steps Mo Salah who makes no mistake from the spot ??#LIVFUL pic.twitter.com/BBV6TBGc5K
Salah stepped up and smashed the resulting spot kick straight down the middle to extend his streak of scoring in consecutive games at home to eight.
Fulham's best chance to equalise came when Vinicius broke through in the 77th minute but again Alisson thwarted him, using a strong right hand to deflect his close-range shot behind and ensure his side held on for a fifth straight Premier League win.